He drilled the well only another 5, 000 feet and hit pay dirt.
This is because while McClendon does have to put up 2.5% of the costs of each well drilled in order to get his stake in the well, he does not have to put up 2.5% of the billions upon billions of dollars spent to acquire the giant blocks of acreage that surround those wells.
Once a well is drilled, time is required to test the well and size the equipment for the production rates.
In this process, after a well is drilled, pressurized water is injected into the well to fracture the shale and open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.
FORBES: Chesapeake Good For $38 But Faces Big Fracking Headaches
ChevronTexaco drilled the deepest well ever last November, in the Gulf of Mexico's Alaminos Canyon area.
In 2009, the same platform that is now on the bottom of the Gulf waters drilled the deepest well in history.
In July 2011 the company drilled an exploration well on the Fulla prospect, where reservoir sands were found to be oil-bearing.
He then moved into North Dakota, where he drilled several other well.
FORBES: Remembering Robert Earl Holding, Billionaire Owner Of Sun Valley Ski Resort
The Jack 2 Well drilled in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 was heralded as opening up 15 billion barrels of untouched oil reserves.
Each well drilled, whether a hit or a miss, a discovery or a dry hole, adds to the geologic knowledge the company has with which to interpret its now vast array of seismic data.
With each passing quarter and with each additional well drilled in the Ultra Deep zones of the Gulf, sometimes in as little as 10 feet of water, McMoRan extends its pioneering position in this play.
FORBES: McMoRan DeRisks the Ultra Deep As It Nears a Financial Bonanza
McMoran has since drilled a second well into Davy Jones (using a fatter pipe), proving that the reservoir structure stretches over 20, 000 acres, and is now drilling a second Blackbeard well, currently at a depth of 25, 200 feet.
Tim Probert, president of global business lines, says that horizontal drilling, a process in which a well is drilled down vertically and then angled around a curve to reach reservoirs from a horizontal angle that increases the well's exposure, is now 55% of Halliburton's total activity.
Noble drilled its first Israeli well in 1999, and quickly scored two modest finds.
The most recent Mad Dog well was drilled by Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.
FORBES: Chevron And BP Reveal Big New Deepwater Finds In The Gulf Of Mexico
So this happens at the beginning of a well being drilled right through to total depth.
The Iraqis that I was with appeared, to my non-military eye, to be reasonably well-drilled and competent.
Qasab was part of a heavily armed and well-drilled, 10-member militant unit which arrived in Mumbai by sea on 26 November.
Back then, Carlos Alberto Parreira's team were a solid, well-drilled unit who relied heavily on the individual skill of Romario and Bebeto.
First, what is essentially a conventional oil and gas well is drilled vertically, typically to several thousand feet or more below the surface.
And a relief well being drilled to staunch the flow is on target to be finished by early August, a senior BP executive has said.
Watched by a sell-out 14, 282 crowd, they pounded away but a well-drilled Quins defence soaked up all the pressure before taking the lead against the run of play.
So Hodgson, who has a knack for turning a ragtag roster of misfits into well-drilled overachievers by preaching fundamentals, may be a better fit for England than his record suggests.
WSJ: Roy Hodgson to Coach English National Team: England's 'Second Choice' Gets His Chance
It is a blessing for Texas that the first successful Eagle Ford well was drilled in 2008, at about the same time the US economy was falling into a deep recession.
American accounts usually give the start of the oil age as 1859, the year that a former railroad conductor named Edwin L. Drake drilled his first successful well, near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
That particular well was drilled to hold the Blackbeard acreage for the partnership, even though it was the least interesting of the three cupola plays identified on new improved seismic.
FORBES: Shortsellers Party Hearty After Their Cheerleader Says McMoRan Is Worth Zero
Private industry's technological advances, operating under state regulation, increased U.S. production last year at the fastest rate in the history of the domestic industry, which drilled its first commercial well in 1859.
For all their possession and creative intent, Arsenal were continually frustrated by the assistant referee's flag, which denied them on three occasions as they attempted to unlock a thoroughly obdurate and well-drilled Hull defence.
应用推荐